What is the CCPA right to correct?

The right to correct is the CCPA consumer right that businesses build for last, and the one that trips them up when a customer says a record is wrong. It is not an open invitation to rewrite your database, and it is not a free pass to ignore the request either. Section 1798.106 sets out what a consumer can ask you to fix, how hard you have to try, and how fast you have to act.

What can a consumer ask you to correct?

Under California Civil Code section 1798.106(a), a consumer has the right to request that a business which maintains inaccurate personal information about them correct that information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing. The phrase does real work. It ties the request to information you actually hold and lets you weigh what the data is and why you use it when you decide whether it is inaccurate. Section 1798.106(b) also requires you to disclose this right, under Section 1798.130, so consumers know it exists in the first place.

How hard do you have to try, and how fast?

Section 1798.106(c) sets the standard: on a verifiable request, you must use commercially reasonable efforts to correct the inaccurate information as directed by the consumer, following Section 1798.130 and the CCPA regulations adopted under Section 1798.185. The timing comes from Section 1798.130. You have 45 days from a verifiable consumer request, and you must promptly determine whether the request really comes from the consumer, though that step does not add to the 45 days. When reasonably necessary you can extend once by a further 45 days, as long as you tell the consumer inside the first period.

When can you decline?

Correction is not automatic. Because the statute asks you to act on inaccurate information, you assess whether the information is actually wrong, weighing its nature and how you use it. You follow the process in the CCPA regulations for handling the request rather than simply overwriting a field on demand. What you cannot do is ignore the right or hide it. If you tell consumers what you collect through your notice at collection, correction is the mechanism that keeps that record honest.

How it fits your other CCPA duties

Correction sits alongside the other consumer rights. A consumer who can ask you to correct data can also ask you to delete personal information you collected from them, and can ask to know what you hold. Treat the three as one request-handling workflow, verified the same way and answered inside the same 45-day clock, rather than three separate projects.

Next step

If you are not sure your process can verify a request and correct the right records within 45 days, the free 2-minute Obligation Scan checks whether the CCPA applies to you and lists the request-handling duties you owe. The California privacy overview explains the thresholds, and the US state privacy laws hub shows how California's rights compare with other states.